Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Lingüística, mención Lengua Inglesa / The main purpose of the present study is to account for the oral narratives of personal experience in the interlanguage of Chilean Spanish speaking male and female learners of English. More specifically, the study intends to describe gender differences and similarities in the use of structure elements, the use of extra thematic details, and types of outcomes. The analyzed corpus consists of 30 narratives of personal experience in English. These narratives are made of 502 clauses, 289 of which were produced by male learners, and 213 were produced by female learners. The eliciting technique was a structured interview, where the informants were asked to narrate about an experience of fear of death, their happiest or saddest experience, and the most embarrassing situation they had experienced. The results confirm the presence of gender differences in the interlanguage of the Spanish speaking learners of English, which are consistent with the literature about gender differences in monolingual studies. Also, even though gendered patterns were detected, the results suggest that there is a need to account for the intragroup differences, as indications of an important internal variation was also present.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado(a) en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / This research report presents a study on vocabulary use in the L2 writing performance of a group of students from the program of English Linguistics and Literature at the Universidad de Chile. The data for the study correspond to ten tests used in a previous study (Aranda et al, 2013) and categorized in Top and Bottom groups by four teachers in relation to the quality of their performance. In addition, the study used data from four interviews to the same four teachers in order to know the specific aspects they consider when assessing vocabulary use in L2 writing performance. The tests were analyzed qualitatively in search for lexical diversity and lexical sophistication features that could account for the difference in perceived quality between the two groups. Such features included the Lexical Frequency Profile for each test, the computation of MTLD, the presence of words related to the topic of the tests and the presence of lexical errors. The interviews were transcribed and a list of the most important aspects of assessment of L2 writing according to the teachers was elaborated. The aspects identified include lexical sophistication, lexical diversity, lexical error and topic appropriateness. The results of the tests’ analyses and the interviews were contrasted, looking for the degree of coherence between them. Results show that, even when there is some degree of coherence between the tests’ analyses and what the teachers say they evaluate, lexical error is the most meaningful aspect when comparing Top and Bottom tests. This is so even when teachers considered lexical sophistication as the most important aspect for them when assessing L2 written vocabulary.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / Current research has established that vocabulary learning is essential in the process of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Since vocabulary learning is an extremely variable practice, choosing the right method to teach it is important so as to achieve proficiency in the target language. In this sense, the Language Planning and Policies (LPP) of different countries lay a fundamental role when establishing language policies and the creation of curricula and textbooks for teachers and students. Following this, the present study focuses on the analysis of the English textbooks from 1st to 4th year of high school, designed for public schools, as well as the curricula from the Chilean Ministry of Education. The aim of this study was to verify if the curricula creation follows what the current academic literature establishes regarding vocabulary acquisition techniques and whether what was presented in the curricula corresponds to what is taught to high school students in their English textbooks. The results show that the teaching of English vocabulary in public education does not entirely follow the major guidelines that have been explored in the literature about vocabulary teaching and learning by different authors, rather, it takes some notions from it, which are not fully developed. Additionally, the Chilean Ministry of Education does not seem to have a clear explicit public policy in regards to English education in the country.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / This study explores the perceptions of teachers and students in an EFL university in Chile and how these perceptions have an impact on the validity of the test. The research questions conducting the study were focused on the comparison between teachers‟ and students perceptions regarding oral tests. In order to elicit the perceptions of teachers, interviews were conducted in order to gather information regarding their evaluation, knowledge and general opinion of the oral tests. Students‟ perceptions were elicited through the application of a survey which gathered information regarding their levels of satisfaction, knowledge and general opinion of the oral tests. These perceptions were later on compared and contrasted. The results indicated that teachers agreed on several aspects of the test and had a general positive perception of it. Conversely, students had a negative perception of the overall test and displayed a very heterogeneous range of perceptions and opinions. The analysis conducted indicated that students are not fully informed of test procedures and criteria of evaluation, thus compromising the construct, face and consequential validity of the test. At the same time, teachers do not fully agree on the criteria of evaluation generating issues in the reliability of the test.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / This study explores feedback practices in an EFL university programme in Chile. In particular, it seeks to determine what kinds of feedback students receive and their quality. Furthermore, the study also aims at examining the perceptions, beliefs and preferences teachers and students have concerning these practices. To this purpose, naturalistic and artificial data was collected from 34 students from an undergraduate in English language and literature programme of the Universidad de Chile. In addition, teachers’ perceptions and beliefs were assembled by means of open–ended–questions interviews. Students’ perceptions and preferences were taken from digital questionnaires. Results suggest that teachers have no standardized set of techniques when providing feedback. Moreover most of them choose their feedback practices in agreement with the subject-matter they are currently evaluating. Students, consequently, do perceive the lack of standardization in the correction of their written tasks and openly prefer the broad description of their mistakes. The most relevant conclusion regarding student’s role is that there is a correspondence between perceptions and beliefs of students and teachers. However, this match in perceptions does not correspond with what actually happens. Students are aware of the importance of their involvement in the process of corrections but teachers claim that a small percentage of students participate in reality. This issue is explained by three affecting factors: Time, Institutionalization and Students’ Motivation.

El creciente interés por la investigación en el área de comprensión de lectura en la adquisición de una segunda lengua ha comenzado a centrar la atención, de manera particular, en las estrategias de comprensión usadas por los aprendientes. Las estrategias de comprensión de lectura adquieren relevancia, debido a que son éstas las que revelan a) la forma en que el aprendiente organiza y evalúa el desarrollo de la tarea, b) cómo interactúa con el material de aprendizaje y aplica recursos específicos, c) cómo utiliza aquellas estrategias relacionadas con actividades de mediación social y de interacción con otros individuos y, d) cómo éstas se relacionan con el proceso de comprensión. Las investigaciones en el campo de la comprensión de lectura en la adquisición de una segunda lengua plantean el uso de una variedad de estrategias por parte de los aprendientes que facilita la decodificación, almacenamiento y recuperación de la información (Rigney 1978, comentado en Singhal 2001). Existen varias aproximaciones a la definición de estrategias por parte de diferentes lingüistas. Por ejemplo, Oxford (1990) considera las estrategias como técnicas y habilidades utilizadas en la resolución de problemas que permiten un aprendizaje más eficiente. Por su parte, Ellis (1994) caracteriza las estrategias de aprendizaje como intentos por desarrollar competencias lingüísticas y sociolingüísticas en la lengua meta. Sostiene, además, que es aconsejable realizar un listado de las características de las estrategias, en lugar de intentar definirlas a través de una única proposición.

Autor no autoriza el acceso a texto completo de su documento hasta el 2/4/2020. / Magíster en Gestión para la Globalización / Como consecuencia de la elevada plasticidad cerebral en los infantes, cultivar un segundo idioma a edad temprana trae consigo los beneficios de mayor éxito y facilidad de aprendizaje. En tal sentido, en Latinoamérica hay un avance incipiente de educación preescolar privada que imparte inglés a sus párvulos. No obstante, esta oferta es reducida y no garantiza la calidad con profesionales nativos del idioma. Por lo tanto, este trabajo tiene por objetivo crear un plan de negocios de una cadena de sala cuna y jardín infantil especialmente diseñado para familias interesadas en que sus niños se desarrollen con habilidades bilingües en Latinoamérica. Por consiguiente, se selecciona a Chile para desarrollar un plan de negocios y, en base a un análisis de las condiciones de mercado, se determina el conjunto de países latinoamericanos que compondrán la cadena. Como metodología se incluyen los análisis de la industria, a través de fuentes primarias y directas, utilizando las 5 fuerzas de Porter, análisis conjunto y las 4 P s de marketing. Adicionalmente, para el análisis económico y sensibilidad, se realiza el análisis de break-even y variación de parámetros en múltiples escenarios. Por último, se toman en cuenta metodologías PEST, FODA y scorecard, para evaluar la entrada de la cadena en los países de la región. En general, los resultados económicos del plan piloto se muestran favorables, con una TIR de 31,8% y un Valor Actual Neto del proyecto de 922 millones de pesos aprox. También cabe destacar, que la evaluación pasó pruebas de sensibilidad en forma exitosa, mostrando retornos positivos aún con variaciones de ±30% de importantes parámetros como precio, demanda y costo de capital humano extranjero. Por otra parte, los países que cumplen con condiciones económicas, sociopolíticas y demanda adecuadas para el negocio, y que por tanto, formarán parte de la cadena Childcare, son Chile, Perú, Panamá y Uruguay. Como trabajo futuro, se puede mencionar la necesidad de construir planes de negocio detallados para la implementación en Perú, Panamá y Uruguay. En adición, será importante mantenerse alerta a cambios normativos que hagan factible la incorporación a los mercados de Colombia y México, así como también la evolución de la atmósfera de negocios en Argentina y Venezuela.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / This study reveals the results of the Social Representations (Moscovici, 1984) and Linguistic Ideologies (Kroskrity, 2010) behind the most influential and widespread varieties of English in the context of English as a foreign language in Chile: Received Pronunciation -British English- and General American -American English- in monolingual Spanish speakers from a middle-class background. This investigation, inserted in an anthropological perspective, focuses on notions from Hispanic-phone speakers who are not related to academic environments, pursuing thus a similar approach to Folk-Linguistics. The corpus of this research is composed of personal interviews performed to participants corresponding to three different age sets (adolescent - middle-age adult - mature adult) where the participants provided their opinions about English language and the most prominent varieties of English. The findings revealed a common perception of English as a working tool and the acknowledgement of English as a global language; besides there was an average preference towards the British English variety, especially in the adult participants, who also depict a more prominent rejection towards American English. In contrast, the younger group presents a more positive appreciation of American English in terms of production; however, they place British English in a superior status. As a complement, the theories of Symbolic Power by Bourdieu and Discourse and Power coined by Foucault will be considered in this research since these concepts are present in the participants‟ discourse.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa

No description available.